Tenterhooks
by NightsofTamara
Summary: Charlie's waiting for the other shoe to drop.


Characters / Pairing: Charlie Swan (implied E/B and J/B)  
Rating: T  
Rated for: Blasphemy  
Length: One-shot  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. A few of Charlie's lines are taken directly from Chapter 9 of Eclipse.

Author's Note: I made a tiny edit to this. It was just one word, but it was bothering me at work all day so I had to change it.

**Tenterhooks**

I'd never felt so ridiculous in all my life.

If the guys on the force could have seen me I would never live it down. I leaned forward on the couch, having turned down the volume on the TV as far as I could without making it obvious, and strained to overhear a pair of teenagers whispering in my kitchen.

One of those teenagers was my daughter. The other was in grave danger of being shot.

I'd been having a relaxing afternoon until Cullen showed up. Normally Bella made me pretend to tolerate him, but tonight he hadn't even been in the house a full minute before the whispering began. They were still in the kitchen, plotting away furiously, not caring that I was coming up with all kinds of unpleasant scenarios in my head. Were they planning some kind of secret rendezvous? Bella could claim her boyfriend was 'really old-fashioned' all she wanted – what the hell did that mean, anyway? Was it some kind of secret high school code?

I grunted sourly, picking up an empty dish and heading for the kitchen. I _would_ find out what was going on, and the bowl gave me a perfect excuse to walk in on them – not that I needed one. It was my house, after all.

Not that anyone would have guessed it from the scene that greeted me in the kitchen. Cullen was standing closer to Bella than I really thought necessary, his hands on her waist. "What are you two hissing about in here?" I asked loudly. Bella looked up, startled, and her expression reminded me of the time I walked in on Mark and his wife at the Christmas party down at the station a few years back. Not embarrassed exactly, just aware that this was something they'd rather not have other people see. A bit horrified. I couldn't remember what it was they had been discussing, but Mark's expression had always stuck in my mind.

Cullen wasn't startled. Cullen was _never_ startled. He glanced up as I walked into the kitchen, but it was almost an afterthought, as if he already knew I was there. He didn't ever bother unhanding my daughter. Arrogant punk. Though maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked – Bella didn't seem very happy, despite Cullen's hands being all over her. Neither did he, come to think of it. I looked at them a little closer, and it came to me: I remembered what Mark and Joyce had been whispering about all those years ago.

Oh, yeah. Getting divorced.

I grinned widely. "If you two are having a fight… well, don't let me interrupt." It was rude, but I didn't give a damn. I put the bowl in the sink and wandered back into the living room, still smiling. My evening was looking up.

I settled down on the couch and flipped over to the game. Out in the kitchen I could still hear Bella and Cullen whispering, and then suddenly they were moving. He was pulling her toward the door, like maybe he had something he didn't want to say in front of me. I could hope, anyway. I grinned at Bella as her eyes met mine.

She looked terrified.

My heart dropped into my stomach; or maybe it stopped completely. What the hell? I jumped up from the couch and headed for the door, veering away at the last second. I opened the curtains covering the front window, not caring for once if they saw me. They were already at Cullen's car – damn, that kid could move fast, though how he managed to rush Bella down the sidewalk without having her trip and fall was beyond me. I watched them for a moment, feeling foolish. It didn't look so awful now. He even held her door open for her.

Damned teenagers. Always so dramatic about everything. I stomped back to the couch as the game was starting and tried to relax. The Oilers and the Coyotes for the Cup this year – not the most thrilling match-up, but apparently I had as much excitement in my life as I could handle right now.

It was early yet, but if Bella wasn't going to be back for supper I'd have to fend for myself. It shouldn't be too bad… there was always bacon and eggs if all else failed, but since she'd come to live here she'd kept the kitchen so well-stocked that even I could come up with something half-decent in a pinch. Bella was good like that, dependable. Not at all like her mother.

I laughed to myself under my breath. Crazy how that worked out sometimes - Bella was nothing like her mother. I wasn't so full of myself to think she was anything like _me_, either, but that was different. Daughters were supposed to aggravate their fathers and take after their mothers, but somehow none of Renee's flightiness had rubbed off on her. That had surprised me when she'd first moved here – we'd never really gotten along that well when she came down for vacation, and I'd assumed it would be more of the same once she was here for good. Pretty sad, how little I'd known my own daughter.

Then again, there were a few times she reminded me of Renee… impulsive, unpredictable. That nonsense last spring, for example. She goes out to play _baseball_, of all things, and comes home nearly in hysterics before rushing off to Phoenix. I thought she was never coming back, even after she got out of the hospital, but the next thing I know she's home again like nothing ever happened – aside from the multiple fractures, of course. I shook my head. That night had always bothered me; there was something not quite right about the whole thing. I shouldn't have let her leave without getting the whole story – I was a cop, for God's sake!

And then there was her little spur of the moment trip to California. I scowled at the beer commercial up on the screen. I _still_ hadn't gotten a straight answer out of her about that one.

There was another time I hadn't understood Bella… but she hadn't been impulsive. She hadn't been much of anything. At least I'd always had a faint idea of what was going through Renee's mind; for a few months there, I could look into my daughter's eyes and not have a clue what she was thinking – if she was thinking anything at all. It scared the hell out of me.

And what was the common denominator here? _Edward Cullen._

At least they seemed to be on the outs; that was some consolation. Or was it? When Bella broke up with him she ran away from home. When he broke up with her she practically needed to be hospitalized. I shifted on the couch, suddenly uncomfortable. What sort of natural disaster could I expect when she came home tonight? _If_ she came home tonight?

The crowd was cheering. Pisani scored an early goal; I hadn't even noticed. Muttering under my breath, I stomped to the kitchen to get something to drink. All of this drama was going to make me unhinged, I was sure of it.

The phone rang while I was up. I grabbed it off the hook and growled a greeting.

"Charlie?"

"Jake! How've you been?"

"Uh, fine, thanks," he mumbled. "Is Bella home?"

"Sorry Jake, she just went out." Bad timing – if she'd been home I wouldn't let her continue to avoid him. Even better if Cullen had been hanging around.

He grumbled something I couldn't quite hear. "Did you give her my message?"

"Yeah, I did. What's this all about?"

"Nothing." There was a long pause. "Can you tell her…?" He stopped again, and I couldn't tell if he was embarrassed or if he was just choosing his words carefully. "Tell her I'm really sorry and I didn't mean it."

It took me a moment to sort out what he'd said – he'd been speaking so quickly he was stumbling over the words. "Sure, I'll do that."

"Thanks, Charlie."

"Hey, Jake?" I said before he had a chance to hang up.

"Yeah?"

"…Keep trying."

I thought I heard him laugh. "Yeah. I will. Nice to know I've got the law on my side."

I was in a considerably better mood when I went back to the game. I'd been so wrapped up in worrying about Bella that I'd forgotten about Jake, but he could make all the difference this time around, when whatever was brewing finally burst. He'd been so good for her before. If Cullen hadn't come back when he did… well, there might not have been a need for him to come back at all.

Maybe that was what all the hissing had been about earlier: Cullen had found out he had competition. Good.

I settled back on the couch, content. I could stand feeling silly now and then if it was for Bella's welfare – that's what fathers were for, after all. It would pass soon enough… she wouldn't be eighteen forever.


End file.
